I don't remember precisely when and how I discovered Dr. Martyn-Lloyd Jones. I purchased his sermon series on Ephesians during my years at Western Baptist College. Lloyd-Jones was cemented as a hero of mine when I read the authorised biography of his life written by Ian Murray (Volume One: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The First Forty Years, 1899-1939; Volumn Two: The Fight of Faith, 1939-1981).
There is so much of his life and ministry I could reflect on in this blog, but I want to focus on one aspect that is particularly relevant to me in my urban calling: Calling to Ministry.
Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer, said (and I'm paraphrasing): "the preacher must find joy in the One who called him."
During this sabbatical I've been thinking a lot about my calling. I hope to write a future blog that reflects on some of that thinking. But for now I want to simply share some of the significant elements of Lloyd-Jones' call to the ministry.
Martyn-Lloyd Jones was born in Cardiff, South Wales on December 20th, 1899. Martyn was the second of three academically bright boys. Among Martyn's favorite pastimes was playing football (soccer) with the local boys or watching the farmers with their dogs bringing in sheep. His carefree early life came to a sudden and dramatic end on January 19th, 1910 when a fire burnt down his Father's store and home (Martyn was rescued by his father who threw him from an upstairs window into the arms of three men standing below. Thankfully, none of the family were killed, but life was never the same for Martyn's family. From this time on they struggled financially. In 1914 his father moved their family to the Westminster neighborhood of London.
Martyn thrived in school. Eventually he applied to the medical school at St. Bartholomew's Hospital (commonly referred to as "Bart's"), London; he was accepted at the unusually young age of 16. One of the most distinguished teachers at Bart's Hospital was the King's physician, Sir Thomas Horder. Martyn's "outstanding ability" at diagnosing patients' illnesses caught his attention as early as 1920. He chose Martyn to be his junior house physician before the actual results of his qualifying examinations were announced! When Martyn was twenty-three he earned the highly respected London University MD (Doctor of Medicine) research degree, again at an unusually young age. He held the Baillie Research Scholarship for eighteen months, investigating a type of Hodgkin's disease. His reputation in the medical world at the remarkably young age of twenty-five was considerable. "If he had continued in this sphere of work there is no doubt that Lloyd-Jones would have become a significant name in medical history." (I'm indebted in this sketch to Travel With: Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Philip H. Eveson.
But a powerful spiritual awakening shook Lloyd-Jones to the foundations. "In 1923 Dr. John Hutton, a Scotsman, was appointed minister at Westminster Chapel. Martyn was so gripped by his preaching that he began attending the morning services whenever he could. Powerful preaching combined with Martyn's growing realization through his medical practice that the problem with human beings was neither medical nor intellectual, but moral and spiritual. At the age of twenty five Lloyd-Jones had gone from being a formal, nominal (in name only) Christian to one who had experienced the power and life-changing impact of God's Spirit.
Lloyd-Jones' Call to the Ministry
"A preacher is not a Christian who decides to preach, he does not just decide to do it. It is God who commands preaching, it is God who sends out preachers."
(Murray, 80)
There were a number of experiences that God used to call Lloyd-Jones to the ministry.
The first of these experiences was Lloyd-Jones' strong, personal sense of God's love. "One such experience occured at Easter 1925 in the small study which he shared with Vincent (his younger brother) at their Regency Street home. Alone in that room on that occassion he came to see the love of God expressed in the death of Christ in a way which overwhelmed him. Everything which was happening to him in his new spiritual life was occuring because of what had first happened in Christ. It was solely to that death that he owed his new relationship to God." (Murray, 85)
Speaking of what that love meant to him in the critical years of 1925-26 he testified at the end of his life: "I must say that in that little study at our home in Regency Street, and in my research room next to the post-mortem room at Bart's, I had some remarkable experiences. It was entirely God's doing. I have known what it is to be really filled with a joy unspeakable and full of glory." (Murray, 101)
Another experience he continued to have as a young doctor was to see that man's problem is not simply fixed by modern medicine. Speakin of this, Lloyd-Jones says:
"It is not often that I make any kind of personal reference from this pulpit but I feel this morning that I must speak of an experience which bears on this very subject. When I came here, people said to me: 'Why give up good work - a good profession - after all the medical profession, why give that up? If you had been a bookie for instance and wanted to give that up to preach the gospel, we should understand and agree with you and say that you were doing a grand thing. But medicine - a good profession, healing the sick and relieving pain!'...I felt like saying to them, 'If you knew more about the work of a doctor you would understand. We but spend most of our time rendering people fit to go back to their sin.' I saw men on their sick beds, I spoke to them of their immortal souls, they promised grand things. Then they got better and back they went to their old sin! I saw I was helping these men to sin and I decided I would do no more of it. I want to heal souls. If a man has a diseased body and his soul is all right, he is right to the end; but a man with a healthy body and a diseased soul is all right for sixty years or so and then he has to face an eternity of hell! Ah, yes! we have sometimes to give up those things which are good for that which is the best of all - the joy of salvation and newness of life." (Murray, 80)
Of course, Lloyd-Jones would never say that a doctor has a lesser calling than a pastor; but, in his case, he had come to see that HE was called to focus on the healing of men's souls by the preaching of the gospel.
When Lloyd-Jones was twenty-five he made a decision to enter Christian ministry. However, he wrestled for over a year with this decision. He feared that his initial decision to turn to the ministry had lacked the clear guidance of God. Murray writes, "Not without much difficulty, he came to the conclusion that he must remain in his present career. In his own words, 'I went through a great crisis and decided I would not do it. I made a solemn decision to go on with medicine.'" (Murray, 92).
Many people encouraged Lloyd-Jones to do both: to be a Doctor and preach on the side as opportunities arose. But, Murray points out, this advice never appealed to him. "His view of the ministry was such that he could not conceive of that calling having a second-place in the life of any many. His whole backgrand was against lay-preaching. Calvinistic Methodism [his heritage] had arisen in a generation of men who interpreted literally the apostolic injunction and gave themselves 'continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.'" (Murray, 92).
So for the greater part of another year, until the early summer of 1926, the issue of his calling was not settled in his heart. In his own words, "It was a very great struggle, I literally lost over 20 pounds in weight." (Murray, 93)
Involved in that struggle were several incidents of which Dr. Lloyd-Jones seldon spoke but impacted his decision significantly.
The first of these incidents dealt with the attachment which he still felt to world and its comforts and pleasures which he had formerly found so appealing.
A family friend, D.J. Williams, had just married and was busy showing his new bride the sights of London. "One night," Martyn recalled, "they wanted me to go to a theater in Leicester Square and they persuaded me to go with them. I have no idea what the play was about at all, but they were very excited about it. What I remember is this: as we came out of the theater to the blare and glare of Lecester Square, suddently a Salvation Army band came along playing some hymn tunes and I knew that these were my people. I have never forgotten it. There is a theme in Wagner's Tannhauser, the two pulls - the pull of the world and the chorus of the pilgrims - and the contrast between the two. I have very often thought of it. I know exactly what it means. I suppose I had enjoyed the play. When I heard this band and the hymns I said, 'these are my people, these are the people I belong to, and I'm going to belong to them.'" (Murray, 93)
The second incident took place in the world of medicine. Through Lord Horder Lloyd-Jones had openings into the lives of the top physicians in England. But what he discovered there was the mutterings, the criticism, the jealous. What he saw at the "top" killed any ambition to get there. There was one occasion, in particular, that left an indelible impression on Lloyd-Jones. "One of the most famous of the Chiefs at Bart's was closely attached to a lady friend on the hospital staff and Lloyd-Jones was one of a small circle aware of their relationship. Then with scarcely any warning the woman died. Shortly afterwards Dr Lloyd-Jones was surprised to find the bereaved chief standing at the door of his research room and asking if he might come in and sit by his fire. Probably it was the corner where he knew he would be undisturbed. For some two hours, without words, the distraught man stared vacantly into the grate until every aspect of the scene was indelibly fixed upon Lloyd-Jones' memory. In his own words, 'That event had a profound effect upon me. I saw the vanity of all human greatness. Here was a tragedy, a man withou any hope at all.'" (Murray, 94)
The deconstruction of human ambition was combined, in Lloyd-Jones, with a growing sense of love for the people that surrouned him at Bart's and on the crowded streets of London. He felt a growing sense of God's call on his life to bring the Word of God to them
Finally, the Hound of Heaven prevailed. As Murray puts it, "It was almost as though the decision was made for him and he could resist no longer." (Murray, 101)
Many years later, in his commentary on Ephesians, God's Ultimate Purpose, Lloyd-Jones would put it this way: "Whatever authority I may have as a preacher is not the result of any decision on my part. It was God's hand that laid hold of me, and drew me out, and separated me to this work." (p. 92)
LESSONS ON CALLING
1. God's call to the ministry is unique and personal in every pastor's life. This is true in Lloyd-Jones' life, and it has been true in my life as well. This should keep us from two errors: (1) The first error is to expect our call to look like God's call to our spiritual heroes. The error in this is to think that God has one way to call, one method of calling. But this is wrong. God does not have cookie cutter Christians; he calls us each in a way that uniquely deconstructs us and irresistably thrusts us into his services. (2) The second error is more common. It is the error to not wait for, or believe in, God's call. Sometimes we think that God only calls the "Super-Christians"...men like Lloyd-Jones and Spurgeon. But that is not true. It is of the very essence of being a Christian that we have been called and set apart by God; furthermore, at the heart of Christian ministry is God's call. God's call is what gives the minister courage and authority.
2. Clarity on God's call on your life leads to great power in one's ministry. If you know that GOD ALMIGHTY has called you and set you apart to proclaim the good news of Jesus you can have courage and boldness. Though you stand alone "against the world" you will not turn away or run in fear; though your best friends betray you or desert you in the hour of your greatest need, you will find strength in the call of your God on your life.
As I mentioned earlier, I am thinking a lot these days on how God clearly called me to minister the gospel in Indianapolis. I do not doubt for a moment God's call. This is the source of my great hope, joy and encouragement in the ministry. God has called me to this.
A PRAYER
Father in Heaven, many years ago you called me to yourself,
all of me - mind, heart, soul, body - were to be yours.
And, freely, joyously, I gave myself to you.
I have not been disappointed; you are my portion forever.
Then, many years after that, Father, you called me into ministry.
Your elders laid hands on me and set me apart for the gospel ministry.
But I was young and proud and self-reliant.
Yet in your relentless pursuit of my heart, you deconstructed me time and time again, until I learned to minister as a broken sinner loved by Jesus.
Then, Father, you called me and Jenny and Jacob, Julian, Judah, and Jackie, to Indy.
We left our home and our family,
We burned our bridges, and turned our hearts to a city we now love and call home.
You called us to suffering and solidarity with our new city,
You called us to a new spiritual family to live together with under your grace.
You called us so spend ourselves for the weak and the poor.
Father, we have tried to be faithful to your call,
But we are so weak, so timid, so broken.
We have done so little for your glory.
But, we do not rejoice in what we have done or haven't done.
We rejoice that our names are written in heaven,
We look forward to that city that is to come,
and we find joy in YOU, the CALLER.
As we return to Indy, remind us of your call on our life.
Remind us that YOU are with us.
Grant us the joy, authority, courage and conviction of your call.
In Jesus mighty name, Amen.
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